1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer memory and storage devices, and more particularly, to accessing and transferring data in non-volatile memory and storage devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-volatile solid state memory and storage devices are becoming increasingly popular. In many applications, non-volatile solid state memory is being used in place of, or to compliment, a disk drive. One type of such non-volatile solid state memory is a flash memory. A flash memory uses transistors, which include both a control gate and a floating gate, as memory cells. Data is read from a memory cell of the flash memory by applying a voltage to the control gate of the transistor of the memory cell. Data is stored into the memory cell by applying an elevated voltage to the control gate, which injects electrons into the floating gate. Data is erased from the memory cell by applying an elevated voltage to the control gate, which causes the electrons to tunnel out of the floating gate. In many flash memories, the memory cells must be erased in blocks before data can be stored into an individual memory cell in the block.
In many flash memories, the smallest basic unit of data which can be written is a block. Modifying data of a given memory block is often performed by selecting an unused memory block, performing a block erasure operation on the selected memory block, writing the modified data into the selected memory block, and identifying the given memory block as a used memory block. However, often it is desired to write a smaller amount of data than a block. As can be seen, if a smaller amount of data is to be written, an entire block must be written. This additional writing adversely affects the performance of the flash memory and thus, in the long term, reduces the operating life of the flash memory.
In light of the above, there exists a need for improving data access in a flash memory, and improving the operational efficiency of a write operation in a flash memory.